RISE: China warns N. Korea; Ark. executes 2; O'Reilly surprised

Tuesday

Apr 25, 2017 at 6:00 AM

Editorial says Pyongyang should be concerned it is reaching "point of no return;" first doouble execution since 2000; former Fox News host says the truth will come out; and more headlines to start your Tuesday, April 25, 2017.

The Associated Press

CHINESE MEDIA WARN N. KOREA AGAINST MISSILE TESTS

A ruling Chinese Communist Party newspaper is warning North Korea against conducting another nuclear test, saying that would likely propel events past the "point of no return."

In an editorial Tuesday, the Global Times says the previous day's phone conversation between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping of China showed the two countries were in close communication over the tensions.

It says China hopes for a peaceful outcome, but that Beijing has "very limited influence on the entire situation."

It says: "The game of chicken between Washington and Pyongyang has come to a breaking point." The paper is known for its often stridently nationalistic views.

ARKANSAS EXECUTES TWO ON SAME GURNEY HOURS APART

VARNER, Ark. — Two inmates received lethal injections on the same gurney Monday night about three hours apart as Arkansas completed the nation's first double execution since 2000, just days after the state ended a nearly 12-year hiatus on administering capital punishment.

While the first inmate, Jack Jones, 52, was executed on schedule, shortly after 7 p.m., attorneys for the second, Marcel Williams, 46, convinced a federal judge minutes later to briefly delay his punishment over concerns about how the earlier one was carried out. They claimed Jones gasped for air, an account the state's attorney general denied, but the judge lifted her stay about an hour later and Williams was pronounced dead at 10:33 p.m.

TRUMP BACKS AWAY FROM DEMAND FOR BORDER WALL MONEY

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump stepped back Monday from demanding a down payment for his border wall in must-past spending legislation, potentially removing a major obstacle to a bipartisan deal just days ahead of a government shutdown deadline.

Trump told a gathering of around 20 conservative media reporters Monday evening that he would be willing to return to the wall funding issue in September, according to two people who were in the room. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the get-together, which was not originally intended to be on the record.

O'REILLY SURPRISE BY DISMISSAL, SAYS TRUTH WILL COME OUT

LOS ANGELES — Five days after being fired from his top-rated Fox News Channel perch, Bill O'Reilly used a podcast to express his dismay and vowed that "the truth will come out."

"I am sad that I'm not on television anymore," he said in an episode Monday of his personal website's "No Spin News" podcast, available only to subscribers after this week's free window. "I was very surprised how it all turned out."

O'Reilly, who exited Fox News amid sexual harassment allegations that he has denied, said he couldn't add much more "because there's much stuff going on right now."

"But I can tell you that I'm very confident the truth will come out and when it does, I don't know if you're going to be surprised, but I think you're going to be shaken, as I am," said O'Reilly, who was Fox's most popular and most lucrative personality.

He declined to expand on that point, he said, "because I just don't want to influence the flow of the information. I don't want the media to take what I say and misconstrue it."